Dinosaur Species Larger Than T-Rex Unearthed

Posted on Apr 19, 2006

The carnivore, named Mapusaurus, lived 100 million years ago in Argentina and was apparently a pack hunter, not a solitary predator.

N.Y. Times:

A Meat Eater Bigger Than T. Rex Is Unearthed
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

A new dinosaur species, one of the largest known carnivorous dinosaurs, has emerged from the red sandstone of Patagonia, in Argentina, where reptilian giants seem to have thrived 100 million years ago.

Paleontologists reported yesterday that they had found the fossils of seven to nine individuals of a species they are naming Mapusaurus roseae.

An analysis of the bones showed that an adult exceeded 40 feet in length, which the discoverers said was slightly larger than specimens of both its close relative, Giganotosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex. Some scientists think that a Spinosaurus species from North Africa is the largest meat-eating dinosaur, but that is still debated.